For the most part, I know how to set up dual or even tri monitors on a PC. I recently picked up an HP m9040n with Vista Home Premium (let the bashing begin). It has a "Dual-Link DVI," but I physically it only has one DVI out. It has an HDMI next to it, so I imagine that's where the "dual" comes from.

It also has a VGA port that's integrated, but it had a black, plastic cap on it. I removed it, adjusted the bios, and can get it to work successfully. However, I can only get one or the other to work - not both.

Thoughts? I'm here waiting...

Thanks in advance.

Ahhhh, good to know re: teh dual-link. Even HP couldn't tell me that. Go figure.

Re: Vista, I'm cool with it. As with any OS (or ANYTHING, for that matter), it just takes time to adapt to change. I've found little nuances here and there that I don't care for or mark down to change, but overall it's fairly slick.

So, back to the dual monitors - I've configured many PCs with add-in cards and integrated video for dual monitor support. That being said, I'm stuck on this one. I simply can't seem to find a viable solution to get both to work. I believe the m9040n has PCI-Express. Is there a chance that PCI-E overrides bios settings so that if you select that option it basically nullifies the use of integrated? That's the only thing I can think of since the capped the integrated in the first place.

I can post what my bios options are if it helps any. Right now I'm stuck.

this might help http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVI

Ok, I just reread the posts on this topic a few times to see what I was missing as you didn't list a graphics card. I think I figured it out.
It appears you are using an integrated graphics card with a VGA output, a DVI output and a HDMI output.
You want want to hook one monitor to the VGA output and one monitor to the DVI output which cannot be done.
The reason for the multiple outputs is just to have options for plugging one 1 monitor has there can be different connectors for different monitor types and you can't use them at the same time.
You need to either add another graphics card to add another monitor to the system.
Or get a dual head graphics card that has two outputs for doing dual monitors.

@jayce: I think you misunderstood part of my post. I know you can have a VGA port and DVI port both in use but not usually with an integrated card which was what I was listing.
As for the machine having two cards then you are right. HP's web site doesn't seem to be clear on that so I didn't know it was two cards when I wrote that.